Challenger Financial Services Group has completed the implementation of SimCorp's trade order management software module, Order Management3, and is the first fund manager in the Asia Pacific region to use SimCorp Dimension to support its entire investment management operation - from front office through to back office.
This includes support for a number of boutique fund managers for whom Challenger partners with to provide a range of services, including back-office support.
An Australian-domiciled publicly listed financial services company with a total of AUD 23.9 billion in funds and assets under management as at September 30, 2008, Challenger was SimCorp's first Australian customer. It has used SimCorp Dimension as its investment management platform for middle- and back-office operations across its Life and Funds Management businesses since early 2004.
With Order Management3 now live, Challenger's front office is now fully integrated with its middleand back offices. This allows Challenger to ensure that consistent information is on everyone's desktops through the whole cycle on a real-time basis.
Challenger is also extending its use of SimCorp Dimension in its back office to provide automatic payments via SWIFT and the integration of Bloomberg feeds for static data. The inclusion of these facilities will automate processes with manual steps and allow the back office to operate on a management- by-exception basis.
"With one front-to-back solution, we are able to continually fine-tune the process giving us more efficiency, reliability and rapid delivery of up-to date-information for our investment teams," says David Mackaway, Challenger's General Manager of Investment Operations.